Earlier this year KStars won the QtForum.org programming contest. Well the KStars developers decided the best thing to do with their money was to donate it to KDE. The US$1500 prize money is one of the largest donations to KDE e.V. to date. KDE e.V.'s budget mostly goes towards legal fees and travel costs for allowing developers to attend conferences. If you wish to be generous, and feel inspired by the KStars developers, you can do the same on the KDE donations page.

Hi, I'm inspired by this gesture of the KStars team. However, I would like a more detailed overview of where donated money, materials, etc. are planned to end up, and maybe others considering to make a donation have the same questions. Does KDE e.V. have an annual activity and/or financial planning/report besides the Sponsoring Thanks that interested parties/contributors may read?

I just read what the KDE homepage says about KDE e.V. . Unfortunately, there is only one online available meeting report from 2002.

Btw, is there an English translation available of the Statutes and Articles ? I would be happy to provide an English translation by an official translator if none has been prepared yet.

As it was said the money goes for legal fees (fees to keep the eV alive, trademark registration and such), organizing conferences (even if the last report is about a 2002 conference, there were others, every year since them), sponsor KDE contributors to attend conferences, meetings, hacking sessions (not just the annual KDE world summit). So the money is turned back into the project, even if it is not so visible from outside.

While USD1500 is a rather large sum to donate for the people behind KStars (well done), I find it kind of sad that that's one of the largest sums ever donated. Aren't there companies lining up to fund the e.V.? It sounds like a good cause if you have interest in the advancement of KDE (which many companies do).

What may equally unclear is the sponsoring by companies letting their employees work on KDE while retaining them on the payroll. Does not get much press coverage either, but at least the company can steer the effort towards its own interests. And this is nowhere in the donation list!

Are there any statistics of how much KDE is worked on officially within the precinct of companies ?